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Saturday, November 17, 2012

Style your hair without damaging it.

Natural styling products:
- Clear Aloe Vera gel
The gel
- This is the center part of the aloe plant leaf and is known as the aloe vera, inner gel, this is what you need to extract to make your own aloe vera gel.
- Flaxseed gel:
Pour 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of flax seed into a pot, on low/medium bring it to a boil stirring flax seed often with preferably a wood spoon. Turn off heat when a white frothy gel like liquid forms (it will have a raw egg white consistency). Continue stirring while it simmers. Place strainer or stocking sock on top of your bowl or container and pour mixture in. Let it cool down, add aloe gel and essential oil. Proceed to use gel while hair is cleansed and damp.
Place the rest of the gel in an air tight container. The shelf life is 12-14 in the refrigerator . Place used flax seeds in a container and place in fridge to use them again.
- Beer:
If you look in health and beauty magazines, you will find many concoctions for washing and conditioning your hair. One well-known ingredient is beer. It seems that the protein in the malt and the hops in beer coat, repair and replenish hair making it soft and shiny. There are pros and cons as to whether beer really makes your hair healthy, but many back- to-nature enthusiasts agree that it does work for conditioning and replenishing your hair.
Beer as a Conditioner
There are a number of recipes for beer used as a conditioner. One that works well is as follows: Mix one teaspoon of jojoba oil and a cup of warm beer. Wash your hair as usual and rinse well. Pour the mixture of beer and jojoba oil into the hair. Massage it through. Let it set for a few minutes and then rinse with warm water. The beer adds body and the jojoba oil adds shine.
Beer as a Setting Lotion
Beer sprayed into the hair before styling will work as a setting gel creating a coating on the hair shafts. Spray it into the hair after shampooing but before drying. Set hair as usual. The beer will give the hair vitality and hold.
Beer as a Shampoo
Homemade beer shampoo is easy to make. Begin with a mild shampoo. Pour one cup of it into a plastic squeeze bottle. Heat one and a half cups of beer in a pot. Bring to a boil and heat until the beer reduces to one-quarter cup. Cool the beer and add it to the shampoo. Shake to mix it. Use a small amount to wash your hair and rinse well. The beer will give hair shine and bounce. Store the shampoo in the refrigerator.
Healthy Hair Tips
Beer will replenish hair and give it vitality, but a healthy diet is essential to healthy hair. Drink plenty of water to help keep hair silky. Eat protein to strengthen hair and stop splitting. Include iron to carry oxygen to hair and zinc to build hair protein. Copper will optimize hair color, and Vitamin A will keep the scalp healthy, while Vitamin B and C will help hair growth and color.
Other links about beer for hair:
--Want ultra shinny shampoo-ad hair? The secret is... beer
The malt nourishes and smoothes hair, while yeast strengthens your strands and pumps up the volume.
--Beer Hair Rinse For Shine And Volume
The beer rinse gives bounce and volume to my hair, adds shine and brings out the curl.
- Lemon Hair Spray
Ingredients
1/2 orange
1/2 lemon
Directions
Chop fruit into small pieces and place in a pot with 2 cups water. Boil until reduced by half. Cool, strain, and place in a spray bottle. Store in the refrigerator or add one once rubbing alcohol to store at room temperature for up to two weeks. Add more water to reduce stickiness, if desired.
You can also use only orange because lemon can be drying.
- Gelatin hair mousse:
Ingredients
¼ teaspoon of plain gelatin
1 cup warm water
Method
Dissolve ¼ teaspoon of plain gelatin in 1 cup boiling water. Let sit at room temperature until slightly set. Rub into dry or wet hair.
Heat-free styling (click the names, they are links to tutorials):
- wrap hair straight,
- braid waves,
- bun waves,
- rag curls,
- pin curls,
- headband curls,
- you can always do a search for heatless curls/waves/straightening for more tutorials
Updos:
- braids,
- buns,
- twists,
- knots,
- Links: Styling Station Central, Braiding Instructions, Hair Style Dictionary (the dictionary helps you find names of updos, for which you can then google tutorials), Hair Friendly Styles.
Updos are great for making your hair look good while protecting it from environmental harm (like wind tangling it, seat belts, back of chairs and purse straps rubbing on it, etc.). The main thing to remember about updos is that practice makes perfect, so don't get discouraged.